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... unless, for some reason, Paxton is assigned the split squad game.  You'd certainly think the M's would be working the phones on ticket sales.  Assuming that the Seattle Mariners have interest in generating money, Paxton will be on the ROOT broadcast at 1 pm today.

Getcher Hot Links:

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Mike Zunino:  'Really Impressed With James Paxton' - CBS Seattle

The article pretty much redirects you to a 7-minute audio interview of Zunino, on this-n-that.  Nothing earthshaking, but ... 

During the radio broadcast, even Ken Sims conceded that "to all intents and purposes, James Paxton is the Seattle Mariners' number two starter."  Sims is not known for manifesting an attitude towards rookies that runs counter to those of the Mariners' staff that he associates with.  

K-Pax has pretty well put "PAID" to any questions about his gig.  SSI:  tomorrow's news today, babe.

It also calls your attention to the fact that the M's will open Safeco for the M's opener down in Los Angeles, admission $1 to watch on the CF monitor.  Kind of cool.

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Oh:  on the postgame radio, McClendon raved about Jesus Montero's camp.  (?!)  He worked harder than ANY body else (?!) and -- splicing Blower's chat during the broadcast a bit -- just has to go polish his 1B game to get back to the bigs (?!).

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Mariners' James Paxton packing power, confidence - Bob Dutton, TNT

If you missed it a few days ago, the TNT's old-and-new beat writer wrote a brisk feature column.  According to Rick Waits, K-Pax last summer "felt he had taken the last little step" and is ready to go.

In the link and on the radio, K-Pax has been talking about the fact that he shortened up his backstroke a bit.  This echo'es the tweak that Randy Johnson made around 1990-91:  the Big Unit used to lean way back, his spine tilted way off the centerline, and give himself vertigo.  I believe that Koufax did the same.  

That is a legit game-changer mechanically - VERY comparable to a golfer learning not to wind the driver so far that his back elbow breaks down.  (Dr. D, who is an extremely casual golfer, breaks 100 despite total lack of practice, merely by taking the club only halfway back and blonking the ball down the fairway.)

Indications are that Paxton's control may be good to go.  If so, bank those 200 strikeouts, b'wana.

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By the way, on the radio they were giggling over Taijuan Walker's giggling.  Looks to be all systems go for the hoopster. SSI has had a pretty steady hand on the tiller on this one, if we do say so ourselves, and what we gingerly predict now is that Taijuan will probably be in the rotation a few turns in.

Check the lead-in picture, LrKrBoi29.  Oh, and just to pile on:

(Sorry, we can't yet wheel out "Scoreboard, Baby."  But we learned in Redmond that emotional IQ is far more important than actual character, intelligence, or work capacity.  So new paradigm ... :: warmfuzzy :: )

Taijuan's the kid, Erasmo is the puppys.

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James Paxton battles through command in tie with D-Backs - MLB.com

Last outing, the kid the grizzled Suth'nah failed to get comf'tuhble.  He mowed 'um down, tho.  He didn't blow up in Rookie Gio Gonzalez fashion.  Rather, he cobbled a string of groundballs and a 1-ER performance.  

The articles say that Paxton's confidence is soaring.  Not as much as Dr. D's is.  MWAHAHAHAHAHA HAAA-AAH!

:: drawl ::  C'mon, Zuum Bawl.  Us'll mow um down.

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Be Afraid.  Be Very Afraid,

Dr. D